Safety envelop-filler.



1 Witness es 1 No. 708,555. Patehted Sept. 9, I902.

G. E. HURST.

SAFETY ENVELUP FILLER.

(Application filed Feb. 12, 1902.)

(No Model.)

UN TED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE E. HURST, OF OMAHA, NEBRASKA.

SAFETY ENVELOP-FILLER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 708,555, dated September 9, 1902.

Application filed February 12, 1902. Serial No. 93,726. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE E. HURST, residing at 1556 Sherman avenue, Omaha, in the county of Douglas and State of Nebraska, haveinvented certain useful Improvementsin Safety Envelop-Fillers; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and

exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, which forms a part of this specification.

This invention relates to a new and novel improvement in safety-fillers for envelops.

The aim of my invention is to provide a filler for an envelop so arranged that the envelop may be tied in a tight package which will spread and open as soon as the tension is removed, so that when the envelop containing some article of merchandise is fed to the canceling or back-dating machine the same will be arrested in its progress and not fed into the machine, so that the envelop will not be destroyed or the contents mutilated.

In the accompanying drawinglhave shown a perspective view of a safety-filler embodying my invention.

It is well known that merchants send small articles through the mails in letters instead of small packages, as when inclosed in a letter it receives prompt and more careful attention and makes, further, a large package, so

that the article could not be as readily lost as would be the case when the article is placed within a box of the proper size. As the canceling-machines are not adjusted to receive thick packages, an envelop exceeding a certain thickness in being fed to one of these machines would be mutilated, and the contents might possibly be destroyed. In using one of my fillers this objection is overcome, as the ends of the envelops are made to spread to form, in effect, a square package.

In the accompanying drawing'I have shown my filler, which comprises a frame A, of spring-wire and preferably in shape of an hour-glass, being narrow at the center, as

shown, and provided with the two straight opposite edges B B and the corners 2 2 and 3 3. Secured toeach of these straight members B are the end sections 0 O, which are also of spring material and are bent outward V shape, as shown. These end members comprise the parallel straight bars 0 and the V- shaped end portions D, these end members being made of one piece and bent V- shaped, as shown. The end sections B of the main frame are then carried between these V-shaped end sections, so that the angular portion 5 of these end sections receives the members B, the V-shaped end members then being soldered or otherwise secured to the end members. Now when this filler is placed into an. envelop it will distend the ends, so as to provide a wide surface at each end, which will be of a width sufficient to prevent the letter being fed into the canceling-machine. The article to be sent, such as a ring or any other light article of manufacture, would then be held within the letter between the frame, and by this means the envelop cannot be drawn into the machine. The safety envelop-fillers are constructed in sizes to accommodate the various-sized envelops used, and of course any sort of an envelop may be used in connection therewith.

Having thus described my said invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by United States Letters Patent, is-

1. The combination with an envelop of a filler held therein, said filler comprising a frame provided with V-shaped terminations held apart under spring tension.

2. As a new article of manufacture, a safetyfiller for envelops, comprising a spring-wire frame in combination with two V-shaped end portions secured thereto, said end portions being held apart under spring tension all arranged substantially as'and for the purpose set forth.

GEORGE E. HURST.

In presence of- GEORGE W. Suns, L. M. CURTTRIGHT. 

